Everyone Knew Sterling was a Racist...why is everyone just now reacting?

He's very old. Everyone gladly took his millions as pay. He gets jealous of his gf's suitors and, suddenly, we have a national conversation about racial hate speech--again. For those elders among us who participated in the civil-rights movement, this does not compare to the three deaths during Freedom Summer, Medgar Evers' murder or, of course, the blood spilled at the Memphis motel. There are grave issues of enduring racial inequality; check household income data by race from the recent Census. This is a non-story.

irony killed the cat wrote:

Sterling was known to be a slum lord, racist and has had very well documented lawsuits. The league knew he was a racist. Doc Rivers knew he was a racist. The players knew he was a racist. The sponsers who are now pulling ads knew he was a racist. The guy gets coerced into saying some racist remarks and it goes viral so NOW we have to do something about Donald Sterling?

it's because the media and JEsse Jackson types need something to hype up and rally around for a good story...someone has to be "the bad guy" it might as well be some old rich douche bag like Donald Sterling.

Because of the publicity given this event, the NBA risked losing lots of money if they did not get rid of this guy. He has done far worse things in the past but they kept it under the radar.

There are far worse guys owning clubs in the NBA.

The Nets owner is a Russian Oligarch who participated in the rape of his country along with the other Oligarchs.

The Miami owner is a big profiteer in the immoral and illegal settlements in Occupied West Bank.

I suggest BDS target the latter and strike while the fire is hot

irony killed the cat wrote:

Sterling was known to be a slum lord, racist and has had very well documented lawsuits. The league knew he was a racist. Doc Rivers knew he was a racist. The players knew he was a racist. The sponsers who are now pulling ads knew he was a racist. The guy gets coerced into saying some racist remarks and it goes viral so NOW we have to do something about Donald Sterling?

He'd been the subject of lawsuits, but where was there actual evidence of something as clear and direct as the recent recordings? The public in general does not follow the legal history of NBA owners. The recent incident lead to public outcry versus legal wrangling. Additionally, there are a lot of situations where behavior may be suggested but not fully confirmed until a specific even brings it to light (the guy that appears to drink too much and later kills someone while drunk driving). I'm not directly comparing drunk driving to racism, but you can't expect the same kind of reaction to suspected/implied behavior versus direct, irrefutable behavior.

Klondike55 wrote:

Because of the publicity given this event, the NBA risked losing lots of money if they did not get rid of this guy. He has done far worse things in the past but they kept it under the radar.

This ^

A racist bigoted slum-lord pays you as a player a lot of money, and the NBA a lot of money, who's going to complain ?

When the noise gets too loud, "something must be done. Who knew?!"

It's utterly dispiriting to read about men like Donald Sterling. Someone as mean-spirited as he is with all the material success he's had. Though I suspect his funeral is going to be a pretty intimate affair......

I don't understand the backlash to the backlash - what did you expect/want to happen?

blumans wrote:

I don't understand the backlash to the backlash - what did you expect/want to happen?

I have no problem with the backlash, just wondering why NOW all of a sudden his black coach who knew, without a doubt, that Sterling was a racist and overall scumbag now has a problem with it.

I'm white so of course I'm not qualified to comment. Kareem pretty much makes the point I was trying to make.

http://time.com/#79590/donald-sterling-kareem-abdul-jabbar-racism/

False flag to distract from the economy's downward spiral. 0.1% growth? Thanks!

Well Donald Sterling got what he deserved. But it is indeed a slippery slope. What happens if Mark Cuban goes out drinking and someone secretly records him saying a few bad things about gays or hispanics? Or if Michael Jordan says a few bad things about Asians? Will their franchises be taken away too?

And this weekend Shaq mocked and ridiculed a handicapped man on his Instagram. Should Shaq be relieved from his TNT duties? Spike Lee visited South Africa and when he returned he said he wanted to kill some Whiteys. Should he be banned too?

irony killed the cat wrote:

Sterling was known to be a slum lord, racist and has had very well documented lawsuits. The league knew he was a racist. Doc Rivers knew he was a racist. The players knew he was a racist. The sponsers who are now pulling ads knew he was a racist. The guy gets coerced into saying some racist remarks and it goes viral so NOW we have to do something about Donald Sterling?

Exactly, the good thing to come out of this is the hypocrisy by black leadership when it comes to race issues. It's okay for the NAACP to give Sterling a lifetime acheivement award if the NAACP is getting paid off by a known racist to do so. That is until the water boils over and the money doesn't look so green anymore.

Another phoney and fraud in this mess is Doc Rivers. He knew as much as anyone about Sterlings history. He played for Sterling long before he was coach of the Clippers. Doc knew but the racists money was too green to pass up. Now the phoney Doc claims to be so outraged. Why wasn't Doc outraged when he was cashing Sterlings checks? Same for player rep Chris Paul.

These people are complete phoneys. Nobody can say anything that would make me believe they didn't know about Sterlings racist past and slumlord mentality. A black person can sense a racist and his racists comments a mile away. To say they didn't know is total bs.

All the Clippers knew, but they kept taking his money anyway.

The bigger story is the invasion of privacy, not his personal thoughts. The fact that a private conversation can result in a lifetime ban and potentially a forced sale speaks volumes about the direction this country is going. Reminds me of 1984.

What about P diddy wearing a shirt at an NBA game that said " white men are inferior" ?

eTHAN aLLEN wrote:

What about P diddy wearing a shirt at an NBA game that said " white men are inferior" ?

I don't care what Sterling said, or what P. Diddy wore. People should quit acting like Sterling's comments were actually harmful. If we want the truth on race, then research criminal trends, intelligence scores, & common traits in bad cities. Answers will be clear.

Copy-Paste from ESPN board:

So let me get this straight.. You can make fun of an asian player , you can go into the stands and beat up a fan, you can shoot someone, you can rape someone , you can beat your wife or girlfriend , but you say you dont want your x gf to take pictures with black guys in the privacy of your house and you get banned for life .. All the other stuff is eh no biggy but saying you dont like black people behind closed doors is the sin of all sins..

What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise. Now there’s all this dramatic and very public rending of clothing about whether they should keep their expensive Clippers season tickets. Really? All this other stuff I listed above has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge? That’s the smoking gun?

I hope that c*nt, whore girlfriend of his gets no money, nor any praise out of this.

That bitch set him up wrote:

I hope that c*nt, whore girlfriend of his gets no money, nor any praise out of this.

Oh not to worry. That girl is going to get a lot more than what she bargained for. She's already got one lawsuit against her. Now there will be another, along with possible criminal charges. If they find out that her and others conspired to do this so Magic could buy the team and they can prove it, all hell will break loose.

ttc wrote:

Copy-Paste from ESPN board:

So let me get this straight.. You can make fun of an asian player , you can go into the stands and beat up a fan, you can shoot someone, you can rape someone , you can beat your wife or girlfriend , but you say you dont want your x gf to take pictures with black guys in the privacy of your house and you get banned for life .. All the other stuff is eh no biggy but saying you dont like black people behind closed doors is the sin of all sins..

And he said it was ok to sleep with Magic Johnson....